The Wheel of Time Casting Call, Tier 3, Part 1

Well, I’ve gotten things going here. I want to let you know though, this is actually a pretty tough project. People don’t often think about the complexities involved in choosing good actors and actresses for such popular roles who also fit the look of the characters. ‘Tain’t easy folks, is all I’m saying, and that’s just knowing that I have to make myself happy with these decisions – not even considering that you guys will probably want to be happy with who is casted as well.

I want to say a few things before I get started.

First of all, there is no possible way to get actors and actresses who look just like what their character should look like. In fact, it’s impossible to even try. Therefore, for my casting, I have given myself two ‘rules’ to work within. The boundaries are this – the actor/actress just have a similar defining feature as the character, and, he or she must be an actual actor or actress. The first rule means that, if the most common thing used to describe a character is their hair color (say, with Elayne, when it mentions her red-gold/sun-colored hair), then that is the major physical attribute I use. Height is the second-most important consideration after hair-color, since the Wheel of Time makes so many mentions of it. The second rule means that I won’t be using people who are only models, musicians, etcetera – they must have had a speaking role in a motion picture to be included.

A few other things worth mentioning. First of all, for more information about which characters are in which Tier, refer to the Introductory Post I made last week. There was a comment that Lan should be brought up to Tier 2 or even Tier 1, and while I certainly disagree with Tier 1, I could possibly be convinced he’s a Tier 2 character, just let me know what you think. Also concerning this, please remember I combined the Tier 3 and Tier 4, and that’s what we’re working on from here on out.

Secondly, for the descriptions of the characters, I am going very simple – I am using whatever is said under “Character Description” about the character over at the WoT Encyclopaedia. Therefore, if the only description there is “she’s old,” even if I could possibly find her hair color by digging through 10,000+ pages, I am not going to do that, and will at that point make a few assumptions. And on the subject of character descriptions, I have always pictured the Aiel as very much Native American-ish – their heights, hair and skin coloring, and even culture is extremely reminiscent of this. However, due to the fact that the number one feature in describing Aiel is usually their height and their light or red hair, those are the two features on which I will be focusing. This means that most of the Aiel I’ve cast are Caucasions, and I hope that is okay with everyone. While we’re on the subject of ethnicity and race, a lot of time, skin-color is mostly left out in tWoT, other than to say “a person is dark-skinned,” or “a person is pale,” or things of the like. This is not the case when speaking of very specific races, such as Sea-Folk and Seanchan – I take this to assume that the majority of Randland is Caucasian-ish. I do not intend to step on anybody’s toes, but with only a few exceptions, there are no black actors and actresses cast.

Thirdly, I am assuming an infinite budget for the casting of this film. What does that mean? It means that if I want to assume that the director is willing to pay the quite-literally billions of dollars it would cost to get all these people together on the same set, then that is exactly what the director will do. I decided not to limit myself by trying to think “how would one realistically cast this series” – the cast is a very ideal one.

Fourth, for the sake the fact that this may take a long time, and could also have been done ten-twenty years ago, I am saying that all actresses and actors I cast, it is assumed they will remain alive long enough for me to finish this project. That means that I won’t be recasting someone who is played by an older person if that person happens to pass away in the near future. At the same time, I will not be doing anything like, “well XXXX actress would have made a great YYYY character 10 years ago, let’s pretend she’s still only ZZZZ years old.” That’s just goofy (as much as I want(ed) Julia Ormond to play Moraine originally).

And finally, a note about pictures – in particular, in regards to female pictures. In my scouring, I have found that for most of these actresses, under the age of say, 30, the pictures tend to be like they’re modeling a dress. Many were pseudo-pornographic. I have tried to choose pictures where the actress or actor looks professional, and in certain situations, may even look like they’re playing the role they’re in. However, for some of the actresses, it was like swimming up a waterfall to find pictures that didn’t look like they were selling lingerie. With that being said, some of the females’ pictures are rather, ahem . . . skimpy . . . so hopefully that won’t cause any offense. And it’s not that there weren’t also plenty of male photos of similar ilk, but definitely, it seems to me that actors are photographed in suits much more often than actresses are photographed in dresses. Ah well…

Well, that’s all the intro we need, I believe. Let’s get started, shall we? Here are the first eight of Tier 3 (and Tier 4, technically) in alphabetical order.

Adeleas Namelle/Vandene Namelle
These twin sisters have been in the series for almost as long as the heroes, though they have had limited screen time. The descriptions of these Sisters usually includes the fact that they are both very old, that they both have white hair, and that they both have very fine features. Well, I’m just going to use one actress to play both parts (since there is a bit of humor in that Mat could never tell them apart), and that person is Maggie Smith.

Put a little bit of dye in Maggie’s hair, and you would not even be able to tell that the description above isn’t just talking about her, instead of fictional characters. Maggie is a very stately lady, often playing sophisticated parts in movies with a very serious manner. Here’s a picture of her being ‘wizardly,’ suitable for either character.

Alanna Mosvani
Ah yes, that woman, the one who bonded Rand against his will, and then has done very little in the seven books since then to redeem herself. She is supposed to be very beautiful, often described as ‘dark and fiery.’

Gina Holden has played a lot of one-shot roles in television shows, and each time I’ve seen her (which has been on Supernatural and Smallville), I’ve been at least relatively impressed with her acting, and thoroughly impressed with her looks. Here she is wearing her Ajah’s colors (what little she’s wearing, that is).

Alivia
The ex-damane in Min’s fabled Viewing, the person who will ‘help Rand die.’ She likely has a pretty important role to play. She is over four hundred years old, but doesn’t look it, due to her remarkable strength in the One Power. She has yellow hair with streaks of white, and ‘fine wrinkles’ at the corners of her ‘blue eyes.’

Meredith Baxter is most commonly known for the roles she played in Family and Family Ties. She has a very strong personality and look, and has just the right amount of crow’s feet to look like what I picture of Alivia, though she would need a bit of dye. Here she is in damane-gray (though not a dress).

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
Family
Family Ties
Various Cold Case episodes

Alliandre Kigarin
Alliandre, Queen of Ghealdan, Blessed of the Light, Defender of Garen’s Wall, is one of Perrin’s followers as of Towers of Midnight – she asked for his protection from Masema, and has been with Perrin ever since. She is in her middle years, has dark hair, and a long-ish nose.

Julia Ormond is one of two actresses I would have chosen to play Moraine if I had done this twelve-fifteen years ago. She was once beautiful, but I don’t find that she’s aged particularly well. She still has a majestic presence about her, though, and should be able to pull the Queen with no problem. Best ‘queenly’ picture of her I could find.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
First Knight
Sabrina
Legends of the Fall

Aludra
Aludra is the Taraboner Illuminator who has run into (and been hanging out with) Mat several times now. She has dark hair (no longer in braids in the Taraboner style), is pretty, and has a ‘small, full mouth.’ The ‘full mouth’ description is an odd one, I assume it means ‘full lips,’ so that’s what I went with.

Rachel McAdams fits that criteria, as long as my definition of RJ’s description works (and honestly, even if it doesn’t, I’m going with it). I never really liked Rachel McAdams, though my wife is very fond of her as an actress. She tends to be stronger in mostly comedic roles, I feel, but I’m willing to give her a chance.

Amys
Our first Aiel to be cast, Amys is one of the Wise One Dreamwalkers, and is also a channeler of the One Power. Because of this, she looks younger than she really is, though she has white hair anyway. As an Aiel, she needs to look strong and fierce.

I’ve gone with Patricia Wettig, who does not have white hair, but I think that can be dealt with pretty easily. What she does have is strength of character, and a strong, tall presence. Her voice could be a bit stronger, from what I imagine of Amys, but once again, I believe that could just be handled by her acting.

Places you’ve possibly seen her:
Brothers and Sisters
Prisonbreak
Cityslickers I and II

Androl Genhald
Androl is a Dedicated at the Black Tower, first introduced in Winter’s Heart, and then playing a much larger role in Towers of Midnight. His only true description that I’ve found is ‘square-faced with heavy eyebrows,’ so that gives us a lot of opportunities to pick and choose. And I’m going with someone that (my guess is) many will believe should be reserved for higher-tiered characters.

Zachary Quinto, the guy with the heaviest eyebrows I can find, looks suitably brooding and dark to be a Dedicated under the thumb of Mazrim Taim. He has some pretty serious acting chops, and even looks the part – behold, here he is in an Asha’Man coat! 🙂

Places you’ve possibly seen him:
Heroes TV Show
Star Trek (2009)
Various Single Appearances on TV through the 2000’s

Aram
Aram is the grandson of Raen and Ila, and is a Tinker. He is dark haired, dark-eyed, and handsome, and is a youth like Our Heroes. Until is untimely demise in Knife of Dreams, he was hanging around Perrin, acting rather surly all the time.

The least-famous celebrity on this casting call today goes to Aram – Aaron Johnson will be his actor. I actually don’t know him extremely well, but thought he was pretty good in Kick-Ass. Here he is, looking too damned pretty (and quite Frodo-like) for his own good (I’m sure Perrin would have something to say about it as well).

Well, there you have it. Part one, the first eight, which also happened to be all the “A’s” in Tier 3/4. I will be doing eight more next week as well, until we’re done with this Tier. I do hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I hope you’ll comment if you find any particular improvements I could make, or have any questions to ask. I will say, I have already chosen all the actors and actresses to play the characters, so you don’t need to give me any suggestions unless you just want to. But I won’t confirm or deny anyone until they’ve been posted here on the site! 🙂

4 Responses to “The Wheel of Time Casting Call, Tier 3, Part 1”

I think Meredith Baxter doesn’t look “ageless” enough to pass as Alivia and I think Patricia Wettig is too pale for an Aiel. However, Aaron Johnson looks like Aram come to life! And Gina Holden is perfect for Alanna, especially with that pic. Perfect picks for these two.

the ageless look comes from being bound by the three oaths. as a seanchan she wouldn’t have been bound and had the look ageless of an aes sedai. she just ages more slowly

“The Oath Rod is the cause of the Aes Sedai agelessness. Although most Aes Sedai believe that the ageless look comes with the ability to channel, the Kin, the Forsaken, the Wise Ones and the damane do not have ageless faces, despite centuries worth of channeling. Egwene herself states to Romanda that the Oath Rod is the cause of agelessness.”
– Taken from wot.wikia.com

Good point! I did not see that but I still think she looks to old for the part. She doesn’t look like she only has a few “fine wrinkles at the corner of her eyes”. Also, I just can’t picture her running around with Nynaeve and the Kin or protecting Rand against the Forsaken. Sorry.